Culturally Responsive Teaching Online and In Person

An Action Planner for Dynamic Equitable Learning Environments

As needs, demands, interests, and opportunities for online instruction increases, Culturally Responsive Teaching Online and In Person is a book that will assist educators in the complex task of designing essential learning opportunities with student for academic and social success. This book reminds us that culturally responsive teaching practices are potentially transformative in person and online. Indeed, this book helps educators think about the tools, technology and teaching necessary to build more liberating, humanizing and just spaces of education.

Our students and their communities need educators who are courageous enough to acknowledge the role race plays as a barrier to learning. Our work is not universally designed if we lack the willingness to address race and racism and the need for culturally responsive teaching, regardless as to whether or not we are engaging students virtually or in-person. Budhai & Grant, through this text, are pushing us to do better for our young scholars by calling out the fact that our systems, structures and practices  need to be culturally relevant, if they are to authentically include and center around our learners who have been historically marginalized. This is a wonderful resource that guides educators step by step through the process of developing and implementing culturally responsive practices, virtually and in-person.

This workbook is a much-needed resource that attracts, engages, and supports teacher candidates, as cultural beings, in their transformation to becoming culturally aware, responsive, and humble educators. The authors position future educators to identify, acknowledge, and reflect on the critical role of their evolving racial and cultural identities and the implications thereof when practicing in the classroom. The book is a resource that transcends theory into practice and will serve teacher candidates in their journey as equity-minded practitioners to effectively implement culturally responsive, relevant, and sustaining pedagogies.

This guidebook addresses many questions and needs for educators to operationalize culturally responsive teaching across learning environments, in-person and online. I appreciate that the guidebook unpacks the work of Ladson-Billing, Gay, and Paris by connecting the theory to practice. I recommend this book for educators who actively engage in anti-bias, equitable, inclusive, and just teaching. The reflection questions, checklist, resources, and exercise are tangible actions for educators to engage moving towards actions in their environments.

As teaching and learning environments continue to evolve at breakneck pace, this wonderfully accessible guide is chock full of practical, useful, and actionable advice to help educators successfully navigate their culturally diverse classrooms, schools, and education communities. With self-guided exercises and reflections, educators will be able to address their unconscious biases, make meaningful connections with families and students, and ultimately, effectively incorporate culturally responsive teaching as they build the dynamic and equitable learning environments necessary for all students to thrive. Required reading for every educator!

For over 30 years, scholars and educators have advocated for the importance of centering student’s cultural frames, into the co-learning exchange of all learners, but in pariticuiliar, Black and Brown students, who have been historically marginalized in educational settings. The Distinction of Drs. Budhai and Lewis Grant’s critical important book: Culturally Responsive Teaching Online and In Person, is the argument that Culturally Responsive teaching (CRT) is not just for in-person instruction, but moreover, CRT can also be facilitated within an online modality. Thus, this book is a seminal resource for PK-12 educators who are passionate about reimagining the possibilities of CRT in any learning environment!

Budhai and Grant have created a treasure trove of resources for K-12 teachers and teacher educators who are committed to transforming a rapidly-changing world for the better.  Finally, we have a book that concretizes how to maximize culturally relevant pedagogy in contemporary, HyFlex learning environments in real time.  This text helps the reader translate the philosophical into the practical via inquiry-based, reflective exercises.  This book will empower educators, leading them to create equitably-rich opportunities for deep and dynamic learning across modalities.  The cornerstone of this text, the “Dynamic Equitable Learning Environments (DELE)” Model, inspires a new way teaching and learning in the 21^st century, providing new pathways to transform our schools by challenging and changing ourselves. As we shift our mindset to realize that we can change systems by recognizing the barriers to equity and inclusion, we reimagine an education that realizes justice in our classrooms, anti-racism in society, and healing in our homes.  You will read and re-read the gems of culturally responsive teaching and build your capacity to sustain equitable and thriving learning environments for our students to thrive in a world where their lives truly matter.

I joyfully offer my endorsement of Culturally Responsive Teaching Online and In Person.  At this critical moment in human history, scholars need a resource like this to be equipped with the tools that will empower teaching and learning at its fullness.  Dr. Stephanie Smith-Budhai and Dr. Kristine Lewis-Grant prove their scholarship in this work, especially by posing questions that lead to critical thinking. As an educator and a life-long learner, I plan to use this work and invite others to join me.